NEWS

2018-02-16 Inray is looking for Project Engineer

We are looking for a Project Engineer to work in measurement system delivery projects. You will start by assisting the Project Manager in specified tasks. You will participate in e.g. system design, procurement and commissioning at power plants. During projects, you will cooperate closely with your colleagues as well as both domestic and foreign customers.

We require an applicable education. Knowledge of the processing industry is considered a benefit. The work will require common sense, fluency in spoken and written English and Finnish, an initiative approach to work, good interaction skills, preparedness to travel and flexibility during busy situations. We do not expect you to know everything right away, but hope you are willing to learn new things.

INRAY offers you independent and versatile work in a growth company, as well an opportunity to see new places and advance in your career. The work will take place in Mikkeli, Finland.

2017-12-15 Inray supports children and young people

This Christmas we remember organization who make valuable work for children and young people by making donations to Day Care Support Association of Rölli, Ihastjärvi School and Hope Ry.

2017-12-01 Inray establish subsidiary to Spain

Photo: PTA.ES

Inray Technologies S.L is now working in Malaga, Spain. By new subsidiary we want to accelerate company’s growth in southern Europe and in Spanish speaking countries. Inray Technologies’s contact information can be found under contact page. At the beginning of the year 2018 we will establish also Spanish web pages.

2017-08-22 The tenth fuel quality measurement system will start in December

Inray delivers X-ray technology based fuel quality measurement system to the Jämsänkoski biomass power plant at UPM's Jokilaakso mills. The power plant produces electricity and heat for the paper mill's needs as well as district heat to the Jämsänkoski district heating network. The Inray system automates the quality control process and replaces the traditional sampling method. The system will be taken into use in late 2017.

The power plant at Pursiala, Etelä-Savon Energia, produces annually about 200 GWh of electricity, about 400 GWh of district heat and about 20 GWh of industrial steam. Most of the fuel used is forest based wood, industrial wood and peat. The power plant is currently undergoing a fuel receiving station modernization, which will enable the plant to introduce real-time fuel quality measurement. Inray's system will be taken into use by the end of 2017.

The X-ray technology-based fuel quality measurement method analyzes fuel moisture and impurities in real-time. The method allows the determination of the energy content of the fuel load immediately after the load is unloaded. When real-time quality information is available to the power plant and fuel suppliers, it is possible, for low-quality fuels, to take preventive measures and reduce the additional costs they incur.

In recent years, similar measurement systems have been delivered to several power plants. The results have been good. Fuel has been more homogeneous and cleaner and the energy efficiency of power plants has been improved. Savings have also been got in operation and maintenance costs for fuel handling equipment, ash handling, staff working time and fuel analysis costs.

More information: mika.muinonen (at) inray.fi

2017-05-10 Inray is looking for a software developer

We are looking for a Software Developer to work in development, delivery projects and maintenance. You will cooperate closely with your colleagues as well as both domestic and foreign customers.

We require at least two years’ experience in relevant jobs and knowledge about our technologies we use:

The work will require fluent English, an initiative approach to work, preparedness to travel and flexibility during busy situations. Knowledge of the process automation is considered a benefit.

INRAY offers you independent and versatile work in a growth company, as well an opportunity to see new places and advance in your career. The work will take place in Mikkeli, Finland.

More information: Janne Kovanen, janne.kovanen (at) inray.fi

Please attach your CV and wage wish to your application.

2017-02-28 Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference, 29-31 March 2017

Meet us at the Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference Mini-Expo stand in Helsinki. Conference is organised by Svebio and Bioenergia. It is the meeting point for all interested stakeholders engaged in the energy transition in the region.

Contact: Mika Muinonen, mika.muinonen (at) inray.fi, +358 50 3509071

2017-02-24 Inray goes to Great Britain

Solid biofuel quality challenges are similar regardless of the country where power plant is located. In February 2017 INRAY FUEL measurement system has started at a British biofuel power plant. System measures fuel moisture fluctuations and can also recognise foreign objects such as stones and metals in real-time. With the help of the measurement system plant’s energy efficiency can be improved.

2016-10-28 Inray is looking for Project Engineer/Project Manager

We are looking for a Project Engineer to work in measurement system delivery projects. You will start by assisting the Project Manager in specified tasks and later move on to working independently as a Project Manager. You will participate in e.g. system design, procurement and commissioning at power plants. During projects, you will cooperate closely with your colleagues as well as both domestic and foreign customers.

We require an applicable education or degree in engineering. Knowledge of the processing industry is considered a benefit. The work will require fluency in spoken and written English and Finnish, an initiative approach to work, good interaction skills, preparedness to travel and flexibility during busy situations. We do not expect you to know everything right away, but hope you are willing to learn new things.

INRAY offers you independent and versatile work in a growth company, as well an opportunity to see new places and advance in your career. The work will take place in Mikkeli, Finland.

2016-09-28 Inray Oy receives 1.2 million euros from the European Commission to enhance the efficiency of bio-energy production

European Commission has granted Inray Oy around 1.2 million euros under the Horizon 2020 programme for demonstrating the OPTIFUEL system that has been designed to enhance the efficiency of bio-energy production. The OPTIFUEL system is based on a real-time x-ray measurement system. The system has been developed by Inray Oy and is used for measuring fuel quality at various stages of the process at a power plant owned by Turun Seudun Energiatuotanto and at a paper mill in Great Britain. The aim is to optimize the energy production process through better fuel management.

Variation in fuel quality is a central challenge in bio-energy production. Bio-fuels can contain 15-80% of water and up to one-fifth of non-combustible materials. At its worst, processing and transporting the fuel takes up more energy than is released when it is burned. These poor quality deliveries generate unnecessary expenses and pose a challenge to the operations of the power plant. Real-time information of fuel quality allows the power plant to take predictive measures and reduce the additional expenses caused by poor quality fuels.

“Inray Oy has developed, in close cooperation with its customers, a real-time fuel quality measurement system that replaces the traditional methods based on sampling. The system was tested for the first time in 2011 at a power plant owned by Etelä-Savon Energia. At present, the system is used by various Finnish power plants. The now granted EU funding allows taking the system to a new level and also facilitates its quicker introduction to global markets”, says Managing Director Janne Kovanen.

Further information: Janne Kovanen, +358 44 967 7927

Inray Oy develops x-ray systems for continuous measurement and production optimization tools especially for the energy production sector. The company’s main product is the INRAY FUEL quality measurement system, which allows the customers to cut production costs and reduce the emissions generated by their operations. www.inray.fi

Turun Seudun Energiantuotanto Oy ensures the availability of energy in the Turku Region economically and efficiently based on its diverse production capacity. The company is owned by Fortum (49.5%), Turku Energia (39.5%), City of Raisio (5%), City of Naantali (3%), and City of Kaarina (3%). www.tset.fi

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s eight framework programme that aims at supporting and encouraging research within the European Research Area. The programme period covers the years 2014 through 2020, and the total funding of the programme amounts to nearly 80 billion euros. The aim of the programme is to support the growth and creation of jobs within the EU and to strengthen the global position of European companies.https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 733664

2016-06-03 Inray receives The strongest in Finland -certificate

Inray has obtained the high Rating Alfa credit classification, which is only achieved by every tenth company in Finland.

2016-06-01 Inray at the Energia 2016 fairs

Inray participates to the Energy 2016 exhibition in Tampere 25-27.10.2016. To get more information of automatic biofuel quality control visit Inray stand A720.

2015-12-01 Real-time quality measurement of biofuel becomes more common

Bioenergy facilities can improve the productivity of their power plant by measuring the quality of the fuel in real time when receiving the fuel. The most concrete benefits can be seen in the operation and maintenance costs of the plant, and the boiler's operating efficiency. A third assessment system using Inray Ltd's X-ray technology will be implemented in production in spring 2016. The technology covers a variety of fuel types, including forest fuels, but also peat and recovered fuels. Measurement data will be utilized in giving feedback regarding the quality of fuel, pricing, reporting, and optimizing the power plant's production.

2015-11-17 Scanning the quality of waste fuels

Waste incineration plants burn municipal solid waste, which is non-hazardous solid waste or refuse collected from residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial sources. The target is to reduce the waste volume and produce energy as efficiently as possible.

Inray has tested dozens of different type of solid fuels from biofuels to waste fuels to discover the fuel quality. Recently Inray tested municipal waste fuels scanning. Target was to find out the possibility to measure online impurities such as glass and aluminium from the waste fuel. If these components exists in high concentrations, they cause additional operational and maintenance costs to the power plant. X-ray scanning results shows that it is possible to identify glass and aluminium from the waste fuel despite the fact it is extremely heterogeneous. Accuracy of the detection depends on many factors but even proportional results can be used to improve processes and in giving quality feedback to fuel suppliers.

2015-10-15 Total scanning eliminates the sampling errors

In year 2015, Inray Fuel has scanned over one thousand truckloads of solid bio fuels. For the first time, there is such a big amount of fuel quality data available. After studying minute moisture data, it can be found out that the moisture deviation can be high even with homogenous fuels, which highlights the importance of total scanning.

In the figure1, is shown the data of a stem wood chip batch, which should be homogenous fuel. Red beams refers to manual sampling results and blue ones to X-ray results. Volume of sample is normally 0.3% of fuel volume that is scanned in one minute. Results shows that person who took the samples was extremely skilled or lucky. In the figure2, the situation is opposite. The standard deviation was lower than in the first case one but he managed to take samples from the wet parts of the batch.

In many studies, it is often used average standard deviation for each fuel type to define the accuracy of sampling based method. In Finnish biofuel quality instructions (VTT-M-07608-13) this standard deviation for forest chips is 4.9 %. As seen in figure 3, this average value often gives a false impression since each truckload is individual. Standard deviation of one truckload can be anything between 2 to 20 %-points. Part of this big variation can be explained with varying storage time and conditions there. Also for logistic reasons one truck load of fuel can be from different storages. It has to be noticed that standard deviations for each truck in figure 3 are calculated from minute based data so there can be found more moisture variation within each minute. This is the challenge what normal sampling meets. Is the sample representing well enough this fuel or not?

Inray and UPM have demonstrated that using x-ray technology to measure the quality of incoming bio fuel can radically improve the quality management of the fuel supply chain. The new system provides real-time information of each load, which also enables fast feedback to the fuel supplier.

UPM has calculated that by using new quality information and developing the supply chains together with suppliers it could be possible to get 30% more energy from the amount of raw material used currently.

POWER-GEN Europe is Europe’s largest exhibition and conference dedicated to electric power generation. POWER-GEN Europe, co-located with Renewable Energy World Europe features the leading suppliers, sub-suppliers and service providers across the entire power generation value chain on its exhibition floor.

UPM-Kymmene Oyj hosted a guest event on Kaipola power plant 7.5.2015. Presentations were given about UPM's forest energy procurement and delivery chain, forest energy quality control and measuring in the future. Day included familiarisation to Inray Fuel quality measurement system and at the same time customer experiences were heard about how system has affected on Jokilaakso power plants' functionality. 50 forest energy industry professionals from e.g. energy and forest companies attended the event.

Inray Fuel measures every forest fuel load arriving to the crushing station. When arriving the driver starts the measurement and instantly after finishing unloading he receives information about truckload’s energy content as well as moisture and foreign matter concentrations. With reliable load-specific quality information, significant saves can be achieved for the whole production chain.

2015-03-16 Truck load-specific quality measurement at the Kaipola power plant

Inray Fuel is a quality measurement system for fuel, and it measures the quality of solid fuels in real time, such as moisture and foreign matter contents. The system enables reliable, truck load-specific pricing and the utilisation of online measurement data in process optimisation.

Collaboration with UPM-Kymmene Oyj started in October 2013, when the Inray Fuel system was installed at the fuel reception facility of the Kaipola power plant to be tested over a six-month period. During this period, comparative measurements with other systems were carried out and the system underwent further development, in particular for the more challenging fuel types. The measurement period was successful and clearly showed the advantages of online measuring compared with the current practices.

In December 2014, the Inray Fuel system was re-installed at the UPM-Kymmene Oyj Kaipola plant. At the same time, Inray Fuel was integrated with the plant's IT systems and many functions were automated. At the moment, the quality of each fuelwood load arriving at the crushing station is measured. As the driver arrives at the receiving station, he launches the measurement process; as he finishes unloading he will immediately be presented with the load's energy, moisture, and foreign matter contents. Previously this kind of load-specific information was unavailable.

With certain fuel sections, the inner moisture contents for loads have been in the range of 20-80 w-%. With this much variation in moisture, considerable challenges arise for the reliability of methods based on samples. Especially for crushed stumps, the foreign matter content has been high at times. Currently definitions for foreign matter are not done systematically due to the lack of a reliable method.

2015-01-08 Inray in seminars and conferences

Effect of fuel quality variations to the power plant for economic operation, 28-29th of January, Vantaa, Finland

Hannu Järvinen Consulting organizes course of biofuel quality control 28-29th of January 2015. Unforeseen fuel quality variations cause fluctuation in to combustion process and difficulties to run the process during the heat load changes. Uncontrolled changes reduce the efficiency and makes emission control more difficult. The course deals with the problems caused by variations in the quality and economic significance of the fuel quality management in the of the power plant operation. The course is intended for biomass and recycled fuel-fired power plants and heating plants operating and maintenance personnel.

TEKES Green Growth Day, 28.1.2015, Helsinki

Green Growth Day will showcase the highlights of companies and research groups in the Tekes Green Growth Programme through short pitches and concrete demos. The target of the day is to bring together all the key participants in the sustainable economy business to present their recent achievements and to share ideas, learn from others and find new partners.

POWER-GEN Europe and Renewable Energy World Europe Conference, 9-11th of June 2015, Amsterdam

POWER-GEN Europe is Europe’s largest exhibition and conference dedicated to electric power generation. POWER-GEN Europe, co-located with Renewable Energy World Europe features the leading suppliers, sub-suppliers and service providers across the entire power generation value chain on its exhibition floor.

2015-01-07 An optimized forest energy supply chain - savings hundreds of thousands of euros per year for fuel suppliers and power plants

Energy wood burning heat and power plants can get higher quality fuel and with lower costs by using an optimized supply chain. This was the statement that was made in Ramboll Finland Oy’s report. Report was carried out in Cleantech Finland Bioenergy project, managed by Miktech Oy. Reviewed companies were Fixteri Oy (stem wood baler), MHG Systems (ERP), Saimatec Engineering Oy (biomass dryer) and Inray Oy (online fuel quality measurement system)

"Quality improvement, particularly moisture and homogeneity, has significant effect to the profitability of the power plants", says business manager Mirja Mutikainen Ramboll Finland Oy.

"The most concrete benefits are achieved in fuel economy, the boiler efficiency and in other energy production costs. The power plant’s benefits are also decreased production disturbances and savings in operational and maintenance costs."

Solid biofuel’s moisture, wrong particle size, foreign matter, contaminants and green chips causes significant extra costs (Table 1). According to the report low fuel quality can cause over one million euros annual additional costs to 180 MWth biopower plant (Table 2). Inray Fuel online quality measurement system can be exploited to improve the fuel quality and reduce these extra costs. Online quality measurement enables also the optimization of the fuel mixes, and thus operate the power plant more efficiently.

2014-11-17 Reliable sampling of biofuels is challenging

Inray has accomplished extensive test runs in in Torrec Oy’s biocoal pilot plant in Mikkeli, Finland. The amount of tested solid fuel types is totally 11, from wood chips to recycled fuels. With these test performance of the Inray Fuel has been verified and developed system further. During the tests it has been also been noticed the challenges of sampling of solid biofuel.

It is commonly known fact that solid biofuels are heterogeneous and moisture content varies a lot. Inray’s measurements in several power plants shows that moisture content can vary tens of percent units within one truckload of challenging solid biofuels. Inray’s tests results shows that even homogenous fuels such as stem wood chips can be challenging for sampling based methods.

Inray and Torrec made test for screened stem wood chips imported from Western-Russia. Total amount of wood chips was 6.5 m3. Moisture was measured with Inray’s x-ray system and 27 reference samples were analysed with standard method in laboratory. X-ray and reference method results were close to each other, x-ray 43.0 w-% and reference 44.1 w-%. However, if results six driest samples would have been used for calculating average moisture would have been 41.8 % and with six most wet samples results would have been 46.6 w-%. In both cases, results would have been “equally correct”. This error source does not exist in online measurements that analyses the whole sample flow.

In addition, the amount of foreign matter was also determined using Inray’s x-ray. Total amount of foreign matter was 0.1 w-% consisting mainly of small stones. Although foreign matter content was low, it can cause serious security risk and additional operational and maintenance costs to biocoal production process, if it has not been taken into account in process design. X-ray is currently only commercial method that determines reliable also non-magnetic foreign matters.

2014-10-03 Inray Log at whole stem cutting station

Inray has accomplished x-scanning measurement campaign at Koskisen Oy's Järvelä sawmill. Campaign was part of the VTT's coordinated VARMA project (PDF: 0,6MB)where target is to develop smart and customer driven Wood allocation centre - concepts in Europe. At the Centre the stems are optimally cut-to-length based on more advanced information about wood raw material quality characteristics and customer orders. Inray's X-ray technology enables detailed information about stem's inner quality that can be used in process optimisation development. Instead of cutting in forest the x-ray based cutting can be done in right places that produce wanted timber grades. At the same time amount of trimming waste at dry sorting will decrease.

2014-08-26 Biofuel quality testing period at biocoal production plant

Inray carries out a testing period at the Torrec Oy:n biocoal pellet production pilot plant in Mikkeli, Finland. InrayFuel system is measures quality of different type of biomasses, such as moisture, foreign matter amount, particle size and energy content. Test period starts this fall and during the period also extensive comparison of measurements by standard methods are carried out.

"Biomass quality information is important also for biocoal pellet production. Especially biomass type and particle size information are good to know. Furthermore foreign objects such as stones or metals are unwanted in production process. In the past, the quality of the fuel could not be determined on a continuous basis, so Inray’s technology is very much appreciated", says Torrec Oy’s CEO Mikko Järvenpää.

2014-08-10 Inray succeed in tough international competition of the EU funding

Inray has been awarded in the tough international competition in the EU's Horizon 2020 program. Received funding is directed in particular to SMEs, and it was granted less than 6% of applicants. Finland received funding for a total of five companies. EU funding is of great importance Inrayn internationalization. The prospective follow-up project, the company can demonstrate the quality of the measurement system on a large scale productive use across Europe.

2013-07-19 Inray’s X-ray systems’ GOST Certificate

The Opmes AX1 and InrayFuel X-ray measurement systems now have the Russian Federation’s GOST R -certification, which is required for importation. Pre-certification of the equipment facilitates an easier and streamlined delivery project, when all the necessary documentation is in place.

2013-04-09 InrayFuel measures fuel quality at power plant in Sweden

InrayFuel measuring system recognizes foreign matter in recycled fuel at a power plant in Sweden. The amount of metals and other particles which are difficult to process in the fuel affects both the usability of the plant and its maintenance costs. With the help of the Inray’s system, the amount of non-combustible materials can be continuously monitored and measurement data can be utilized in plant controls in addition to quality measuring.

2013-04-08 Ligna 2013, Hannover Germany

Inray will be present at Ligna fairs on 6th May -10th May 2013. You can find us at Limab Oy's stand B30 Hall 27.

2012-07-02 International Wood Fair 2012, Klagenfurt Austria

Inray will be present at Klagenfurt fairs on 30th August - 2nd September 2012. You can find us at Sprecher Automation's stand F03, Hall HA01.

Austrian Sprecher Automation GmbH represents Inray's log x-ray scanners at agreed territory in Central Europe. Sprecher Automation has a long history in saw mill industry as a reliable automation and measurement system supplier and wide clientele in Central and East Europe. Sprecher Automation has 330 employees and nine offices which will guarantee good resources to customer projects. Co-operation between companies will respond to continuously growing customer need for raw material optimization.

Sprecher is a manufacturer of products and services for the areas of energy supply, industries, municipal utilities, wood industry and infrastructure, control and automation technology (e.g. control and protection systems, switchgears), laser, scanner and imaging systems as well as visualization systems and provider of turnkey and partial solutions.